north east online - north east india news: May 15, 2009

Friday, May 15, 2009

Bangalore Royal Challengers beat Chennai Super Kings by two wickets

Durban, May 14 (ANI): Bangalore Royal Challengers beat Chennai Super Kings by two wickets in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match here on Thursday.

Chennai Super Kings skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first. Chennai got to a good start after openers Matthew Hayden and Murali Vijay added 32 runs for the first wicket.

Hayden once again played a fine knock and scored 60 runs off 38 balls with four fours and three sixes.

Apart from Hayden's inning, no other player could bat for a long time at the crease. ]

The only partnership of substance for Chennai was of 45 runs that came between Hayden and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the third wicket.

Dhoni scored 18 runs off 20 balls with one four hit to the fence.

Chennai Super Kings scored 129 runs for the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs.

For Royal Challengers, skipper Anil Kumble, R. Vinay Kumar and Jacques Kallis took two wickets each.

Chasing a victory target of 130, Bangalore Royal Challengers got off to a poor start when opener Jacques Kallis was adjudged leg before wicket off Albie Morkel.

Royal Challengers had lost three wickets at a total of 30 runs, but Virat Kohli and Ross Taylor took their team to a total of 86 runs. Kohli and Taylor added 56 runs for the fourth wicket.

Kohli scored 38 runs off 35 balls with four fours and two sixes. After Kohli's dismissal, Royal Challengers lost wickets on quick succession.

R. Vinay Kumar took two runs on the third ball and hit the fourth delivery of the last over for four to register a thrilling victory.

For Chennai, Albie Morkel and Jacob Oram took two wickets each.

Ross Taylor was declared 'Man of the Match' for his match-winning inning of 46 runs. (ANI)

Uttar Pradesh Government withdraws NSA against Varun

Lucknow, May 14 (ANI): Mayawati-led Uttar Pradesh Government on Thursday revoked the National Security Act (NSA) invoked against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Varun Gandhi for allegedly making hate speeches.

UP Government's decision came hours after the Supreme Court ordered the State Government to revoke the NSA against Varun Gandhi.

Varun was arrested under the NSA on March 29.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court revoked the NSA invoked against Varun Gandhi for making an alleged 'hate-speech' in Pilibhit.

Varun had challenged the imposition of the NSA by the Uttar Pradesh Government in the apex court and demanded compensation of rupees 10 lakh from Chief Minister Mayawati.

The imposition of NSA on Varun has also been termed invalid by the Uttar Pradesh Advisory Board appointed by the Allahabad High Court to go into the merits of the case.

The government argued that the Advisory Board's decision was incorrect, as it had ignored several cogent evidences against Varun.

Varun had submitted his representation before an Advisory Board in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on April 28 against slapping of the NSA over his alleged hate speech in Pilibhit.

As the ultimate statutory authority on the NSA, the Advisory Board has the right to approve or revoke the government order invoking the act against Varun.

The verdict of the Advisory Board is final and if it chooses to revoke the NSA, Varun would be set free with immediate effect.

Varun was charged for making highly inflammatory anti-Muslim utterances during his poll campaign in Pilibhit. (ANI)

Left parties not to support Congress-led Government

Kolkata, May 14 (ANI): Forward Bloc General Secretary Ashok Ghosh on Thursday said that the Left parties would not support a Congress-led Government at the Centre.

"In no circumstances will the four Left parties - the CPM, the Communist Party of India (CPI), Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) will support a Congress-led government at the Centre from outside. If necessary, we will sit in the opposition. This is our decision," Ashok Ghosh told reporters here.

When asked if the Congress emerged as the single largest party would his party abstain from voting in the event of a trust voter in the Parliament to enable such a government to survive to prevent the BJP from coming to power, Ghosh said the stand of the Left parties so far was not to support a Congress-led government.

Gosh, however, added that he could not say anything what would happen in a changed scenario. (ANI)

President felicitates three young girls in New Delhi

New Delhi, May 14 (ANI): President Pratibha Patil on Thursday felicitated three young girls from Purulia District of West Bengal for their progressive outlook which helped them to resist their early marriage in favour of further education.

The three girls - Afsana Khatun, Rekha Kalindi and Sunita Mahato, showed great grit and determination when asked to wed at such a tender age by their parents.heir stories of courage impressed the President so much that she invited them to Delhi.

At the felicitation, President applauded the girls and presented them a cash award of Rs. 10,000 each.

"These girls are very brave. They said 'no' to their parents and refused to get married. With the help of their friends and teachers, they convinced their parents that early child marriage is not good. I am very glad that their parents have also agreed," Pratibha Patil said.

On meeting the President, the trio beamed a big smile and said that they think this event would usher a wave of change in their lives as well as the society.

Thirteen-year-old Afsana Khatun has been a student of the Dhobadi Special School, run under National Child Labour Project since August 2007. Prior to enrolment in the school she was working as a domestic help to supplement her parents' meagre income.

When Afsana's parents decided to discontinue her schooling and even fixed her marriage in early September, she resolved not to accept her fate as her elder sister had done.

Her sister too was married off when she was just 13 years in age.

Nonetheless, Afsana sought help from her classmates who jointly asked the Assistant Labour Commissioner, coordinating the National Child Labour Programme (NCLP) in Purulia to intervene.

Similar have been the saga of the other two girls Rekha Kalindi (11) from Jhalda Block and Sunita Mahato (13) from Joypur.

All the three young girls study in the same Dhobadi Special School in Purulia.

Rekha and Sunita also protested when their parents arranged their marriage to persons very much elder to them.

They too asked the NCLP authorities to help them and through their intervention succeeded in convincing their parents to put off their marriages till they attained the age of 18.

Rekha Kalindi recalled how she refused despite the parents' adamant attitude until the officials of the Labour Commissioner emerged on the scene and rescued her.

Child marriage is a social evil and also a penal offence in India. (ANI)

LK Advani will become PM predicts Shivalinga Swamy

Bangalore, May 14: While the exit polls predict an edge to Cong-led government, divine astrologer and healer Shree Shivalinga Swamy of Bangalore seems to see quiet the opposite in Advani's furture. Based his calculations and intuition, he portends LK Advani from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) taking over the Prime Ministerial seat post May 16.

Saturn dasha and Saturn bhukti are the hurdles that are slowing him down right now but in spite these obstacles, the divine astrologer predicts Advani emerging as the Prime Minister. His prediction also indicates that he will face troubles in his administration.

Read: ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ
The planets aligning to give him the 'Kingly' position are his Jupiter in 11th house (transiting from moon), and Rahu and Ketu in 3rd and 9th house (transiting from ascendant), and transiting Saturn in Leo.

The astrological prediction also expects the senile leader to put some concentrated effort in the direction of acquiring power.

We apologise to Indian passengers: Air France

New Delhi, May 14: Air France on Thursday, May 14 apologised to its passengers especially to Indian passengers for 'all inconveniences', due to a long delay in a Paris-Mumbai flight Sunday, May 10.

"Air France apologises for the ill-treatment meted out to passengers and understands the annoyance expressed by some of them. Exceptional circumstances made the situation particularly difficult," the airline said in a statement.

The Air France Airbus-A330 flight AF 218 was delayed after the pilot noticed some vibrations coming from the cargo hold. Indian passengers who reached Mumbai on Tuesday, May 12 had complained of 'ill-treatment' and alleged racial bias on the part of the airline employees.

"The airline did not give any reason for the delay and dumped all Indians in a small room," an Indian passenger said after landing in Mumbai.

However, the airlines said that its staff made sure that all the passengers were served and comfortable.

SC orders NMIH to pay 1 cr to Infy engineer

New Delhi, May 14: The Supreme Court on Thursday, May 14 directed Hyderabad's Nizam’s Medical Institute to pay a hefty compensation of Rs 1 crore to a software engineer who suffered permanent disability due to the negligence of the hospital staff.

Prashanth S Dhananka, employee of Infosys from Bangalore was paralysed waist downwards after a surgery at the government-owned institute. The surgery has rendered him permanently disabled and incapable of performing everyday chores.

The supreme court bench comprising of Justice B N Agrawal, Justice G S Singhwi and Justice H S Bedi hiked the compensation from a Rs 15 lakhs awarded by the Andhra Pradesh High Court to Rs one crore making it the highest compensation ever awarded.

Office worker spooked by UFO flying over Bristol

London, May 14 (ANI): A Brit office worker, who managed to videotape a UFO flying over Bristol, has been left spooked by it.

Andy Hadlington, 36, a computer game writer, witnessed the mysterious triangular-shaped object silently hovering above a residential neighbourhood in the West Country city on May 10.

In the video, a spinning grey object gliding around the village of Knowle - without making a sound, could be seen.

"It was the freakiest thing I have ever seen in my life. I was sitting in my office and saw it out of the corner of my eye," the Sun quoted Hadlington as saying.

"It was quite exciting - it sort of hovered past the houses. There was no sound. I ran downstairs and out of the garden to see where it went but I couldn't see anything.

"My fiancee was out at the time but I'm sure other people must have seen it. It was so clear," he added.

UFO experts have since been clambering to verify the sighting and are hoping to speak to more witnesses about the eerie episode.

Denis Plunkett, 78, of the British Flying Saucer Bureau, based in Winterbourne, near Bristol, was unable to comment on the video but said there were ways to verify its authenticity.

"There are ways to sort out good from bad. Firstly they are silent, there will be no noise," he said.

"They can also become invisible. They can go in and out of MoD radar. They can change speed, direction and height in seconds.

"The best thing is if there are multiple witnesses to the sighting. If more people saw this I'd be very interested," he added. (ANI)

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